Working with Clients and Families

Drug Alcohol Treatment Breathing Space Thailand’s approach to working together with Clients and Families

The staff at residential addiction treatment Breathing Space Thailand is highly committed to ensuring that our clients achieve the best possible benefits from their visit to our facility. We understand that the families of people suffering from addictions are also in great need of support, which is why we would like to invite them to join their loved ones at the Breathing Space Thailand residential addictions treatment, during the last week of their family member’s program. During our 3 day family program any latent anger issues or sources of friction and distress can be resolved in a safe, supportive environment and any pertinent questions can be addressed.

We would like to stress, however, that the Breathing Space Thailand Family Program has been specifically designed to enable our clients to move beyond a destructive behavior pattern. Since old habits need to be replaced by new ones, a residential treatment model has been adopted whereby the environment is strictly controlled to be free of any triggers that might cause a relapse, including family. This means our clients need to be away from their regular environment for a specific period of time, which also includes contact with the people they usually associate with daily. This might sound harsh but we are an addiction treatment facility and not a support group. The first 28 days of recovery are vital when it comes to the process of re-education. Our clients usually enter the program specifically because they want to have strong, loving bonds with their family and loved ones again. Being separated from them for 28 days gives clients a tangible feeling of what it would be like to have to live without their families and is a very strong motivator for sticking to the program so that they can go home again with a fresh perspective and new habits. Absence most certainly makes the heart grow fonder!

Of course we do not mean to isolate our clients or their families and in emergencies our staff will certainly pass on important messages but we ask that the families understand that this process is crucial for the recovery of their loved ones. We strongly advise that the family joins a support group during the time that our clients follow the Breathing Space Thailand program, so that they can address their own needs and understand the process of addiction, addiction treatment and addiction recovery better. In this way, they would be aware of factors that might trigger relapses and would have been introduced to a supportive peer group. When the family meets again towards the end of the client’s residential program, every member would have been prepared in the best possible way to deal with the changing family dynamics. There are various support groups, such as Families Anonymous, Al-anon, Alateen, Adult Children of Alcoholics, and the National Association for Children of Alcoholics. More information can be found here.

We understand that separation can be traumatic but in the interests of our clients and their families we would like to be able to provide the best care and the most effective treatment possible in order to enable our clients to go back to their families and full recovery as quickly as possible. During this 28-day period, our clients will be following a strict and proven program that requires them to bond with their peers and therapists and having their family around will certainly impede this process and slow down recovery. We provide the best possible individual attention and this intense process requires the clients’ full attention and commitment.

Please feel free to contact our staff for more information about support groups in your area or for information about accommodation close to the Breathing Space Thailand facility if you plan to attend the Breathing Space Thailand residential addictions Family Program. Our staff would be happy to provide you with any information you might need regarding the progress of our clients, but we would ask you please to respect our clients’ need for intense re-direction and focus, which requires a period of isolation for self-reflection. A Breathing Space of 28 days in Thailand might seem like a long period away from your loved ones but when you consider that this is only the beginning of many years of health and a new lease of life for everybody in your family, it’s most certainly worth the investment of your time and patience.

For further information on the Breathing Space Thailand Family Program contact us.